On the Inside
by JadeWing
Summary: A 9/11 fic. This isn't the CCS reaction; it's the CCS playing a part. God bless America.


On the Inside 

On the Inside

No one did this, so I thought I would. I wasn't sure if I should put this up, but I figured that if you didn't like it, you could always give me a bad review. This is my contribution, because it's the only thing I really can do. 

__

Lives have been lost

People are gone

But we are not done

America goes on

Knock down our towers

Try and tie us with strings

But try all you want

You can't break our wings.

—Molly Owen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, Sakura!"

"Hey, Mary." I waved to her, then set my purse down by my desk, collapsing into the swivel chair. 

"What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

My mouth turned down in a wistful frown. "My boyfriend's in Hong Kong, that's what's wrong."

"Aw, that's okay," she said comfortingly. "I'm sure he misses you just as much as you miss him."

"I know, but I'm still worried" I leaned on my elbows and stared at the walls of my cubicle, then stood up. "Did Allan make coffee this morning?" 

"No, I did," she said. "Fresh-brewed. Come on, I heard rumors of donuts."

"Donuts?" I perked up a little. "Works for me!"

As I followed her into the staff room, I glanced at the clock—8:47 am. _I'm thirteen minutes early. Will the wonders never cease_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Watch it, buddy!" 

Someone flipped me off, even though he'd been the one to bump into me. Ignoring him, I tried to figure out where exactly where I was going.

__

There's aa park-ish thingand then some street thing

Face it, Syaoran. You're lost.

I disgustedly threw the map away, then looked around for anyone who looked like they would be remotely helpful.

Nothing.

The sign of a deli up ahead caught my eye. _I hope my English is as good as I need it to be_

Taking a closer look, I found it was actually a Mandarin restaurant. _Just my luck._ Ducking inside, I looked around for a waiter.

"Sir, how may I help you?" A waiter hurried over, his English heavily accented. 

"Do—do you speak Mandarin?" I asked with difficulty.

He nodded. "Yes, sir."

I sighed with relief. "Where is the World Trade Center?" I asked. 

He gave me directions, and I thanked him, then left. From the looks of it, I would have a long way to walk.

After a little while, the tops of the towers came into view. _She's in the north one, right?_ _One of the floors at about the middle?_

There was the dull roar of an airplane overhead as I frowned and looked up. Usually, the planes couldn't be heard over the chaotic noise here on the ground.

My eyes widened in shock as I saw how low it was flying—then watched, horror-struck, as it slammed into the side of the tower.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And what would you like to drink, Miss Daidouji?" 

"A coke, please."

The attendant handed me a pop can and cup, then moved on. Behind me, two men were conversing in another language. I ignored them and cracked the can open, pouring it into the cup. The brown liquid fizzed as it struck the ice, and I sipped at it, feeling the bubbles on my tongue.

__

I wonder how much longer we've got

Frowning, I realized I had to use the little girl's room and stood up, bringing my purse with me out of habit. 

Once inside, I studied my reflection. My hair was twisted into a bun on the back of my head; the dark gray business suit made me look formal and efficient. As vice president of Daidouji Incorporated, I needed that look.

Screams broke out in the cabin behind me, and I straightened, startled. _What's going on?_

"Everybody, get into the back of the airplane," I heard in heavily accented English. "We are armed. Please remain calm."

My mind put the pieces together and I leaned against the wall for support, shocked. 

We'd been hijacked.

I pulled out my cell phone, but a news flash was already running across the screen.

__

Hijacked planes crash into World Trade Center

Is that what they're going to do with us?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

TSP Reports. It was _always_ TSP reports.

I looked dully out the window, bored mindless. Behind me, Mary was typing away at something while my boss flirted with his new secretary, despite the fact that he was married. _What a jerk_

I sipped my coffee, watching clouds skid across the sky. The view from up here wasn't too bad.

And then I saw the plane coming. 

The first thing that tipped me off was that is was flying way too low. The second was that commercial flights never got this close to us. 

And my sixth sense was screaming at me to get away from the windows. 

"Get under your desks!" I yelled. "A plane's headed straight towards us!"

"Very funny, Sakura," Allan said dryly. "Now—"

His mouth dropped open as his gaze passed me and landed on the jet screaming towards us. _"Everyone under your desks NOW!"_

I scrambled under mine and had just curled into a ball as it hit, about twenty-five stories above us. 

There was a roaring explosion, and the glass shattered. Shards rained down around my desk, and heat rushed in. I didn't dare look out, but my magical view said everything: a fireball was erupting from above us.

"Don't get out yet!" I yelled, sensing the worst was to come.

Scorching-hot air blasted around us, and papers burst into flame. Metal shrieked and groaned around us as screams echoed throughout the building.

In a minute or two, it was all over. I crawled out, glass crunching under my feet, and looked around. The office was a wreck—every window shattered; papers on fire everywhere; office supplies scattered; computers melted into twisted hunks of metal and plastic. We'd been shielded from the worst of the explosion and its following blast of heat underneath our desks. More people started getting out.

I went to the window and looked out. Already, people were starting to gather and stare. 

The walls were creaking. Frowning, I used my magic to see what was going on—and gasped. 

The inner core had been damaged, and the weight it supported was distributed to the beams in the walls. Fires were heating those beams, and soon the metal would weaken.

And then the tower would collapse, trapping us all inside.

"We need to get out," I said, trying to keep my voice calm.

"Why?" 

Mary stood, her hair in wild disarray. 

"From what I know about the tower's structure, it may fall," I told her lowly. 

"Fall?" she asked, her eyes wide with horror. "Fall?"

"Yes, but—"

"No! It can't fall!"

"Mary, please—"

"I—I can't—" She backed up, panicking. 

"Mary, listen to me!" I ordered. "We can make it out!"

"No," she insisted, her eyes wild with fear. "No, we're all going to die. I'm going to be crushed."

"Mary—"

"I can't take it!" A piece of the burning ceiling fell nearby, and I choked on the smoke.

"Don't—"

__

"DON' TRY TO STOP ME!" she screamed. _"I WON'T BE CRUSHED TO DEATH!"_

"Mary!"

She turned and sprinted to the window, then jumped out.

__

"Mary!" I dashed over, but she was gone.

Tears clogged my throat, already thick with smoke.

__

I—I have to get more people out

Turning away from the window, I headed to the door where the staircase was and held it open for my co-workers, working numbly through the tears rolling down my face. "Come on. We need to get out of here."

Screams in the stairwell nearly drowned me out. Horrified, I stared down and found a terrifying scene. 

People were trampling eachother in their desperation to get out. Flaming debris rained down, striking down some and burying others; the flickering orange was the only light in the stairs. Fire was burning in patches. Shrieks rang throughout the air as their originators caught on fire or were crushed by either their own co-workers or debris.

If this wasn't hell, it was as close as it was going to get.

"People, calm down!" I shouted into the gaping passage. "Listen to me! _You're killing your own friends!_"

"Shut up!" a red-faced man yelled. "At least we're getting out alive!"

"At the cost of other lives?" I argued. "People, listen to me! If you don't stop, you're _all_ going to die!" When they didn't slow, I used my magic to stop them. They didn't know it was me—all they knew was that they were calming down. 

"Listen to me." I ran a hand through my hair, trying to think of what to do now. "Find someone else, and hold their hand. Don't let go, no matter what, and just walk down. Walk fast, but _don't_ run, or people will trip."

There was silence as they each seized someone else's hand and started walking down. I found an empty nook and held the debris off as best I could.

__

If you don't go eventually, you're going to die, a voice in my head told me. 

__

If I stop holding it up, **they're** going to die.

A shrill ringing filled my ears—my cell phone. Blinking, I hesitated, then picked it up. "What is it?"

"Sakura?"

"Syaoran?!"

"Where are you?"

I plugged my other ear and tried to concentrate on what he was saying. "I'm in the stairs," I yelled over the sounds of terrified people. No matter what I did, they were still scared, and there were screams at every creak of the walls; sobs were echoing up the narrow passage. 

"Get out of there!" His voice was scratchy through the bad transmission.

"I can't," I said, distracted with the effort of holding up the debris. It got harder by the second—more and more was piling on, and I was losing power. "There's people here, and I have to keep the ceiling from falling."

"But—"

"I'm not leaving till they're all out."

"Can't you do that from the ground?"

"No!"

"Sakura—" There was a roar over the connection line, and he swore vividly.

"What just happened?"

"Another plane went into the other tower!"

I nearly dropped the phone. _Another one?_

"Syaoran, we have to do something—" Visions of glass and chunks of plaster falling to the ground flashed behind my eyes. "Where are you?" I demanded.

"On the ground—"

"Get away! There's glass and other stuff falling!"

"You need to get out of there!" I could hear his rapid footfalls faintly. 

"I'm not leaving!"

"Sakura—"

I lost my grip on one section of the floating debris, and plaster rained down on me. My cell phone was knocked out of my hand, and I heard a clatter as it skidded away.

__

"Sakura!"

Something hit my head, making me see stars. I shook my head, disoriented, and when I opened my eyes again I couldn't find the phone again.

__

I'm sorry, Syaoran

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I dialed on the cell phone frantically, still hidden in the women's room. _Oh my god_

"Hello?" a deep voice asked. 

"Eriol?" I whispered.

"Tomoyo? What is it?"

"Is it true the planes crashed into the towers?" I prayed that it wasn't true. _Sakura works in one of thoseoh my god, this can't be happening._

He paused, then said heavily, "Yes."

I sucked in breath. "Eriol, our plane's been hijacked."

__

"What?!"

"It was hijacked," I repeated, starting to choke back tears. "I think they're going to do the same thing."

"More peopleDear god"

"What should I do?"

He took a deep breath and let it out as I waited, tense. "I don't know," he said finally. "I really don't know. I—you're _on_—and it—"

A notion occurred to me, and I interrupted him. "They're probably going to crash it into something big."

"Another went into the Pentagon," he said tersely.

I gasped. It became clear exactly what was going on: whoever was in charge of it was trying to disable both America's defense and their finances.

__

And it's working

But then I realized that our ultimate destination was probably something just as important. Defense, finance—all that was left was to destroy America's heart: the White House.

We had to stop them.

"Eriol, I think we've got to charge them," I said dazedly.

"What?!"

"We've got to stop them—the hijackers."

"How many are on your plane?"

"Four or five, I think. We can take them."

"But—does anyone know how to fly the plane?"

"I don't think so," I responded, full of a strange calm.

"But you'll die!"

"Eriol, we've been hijacked. We're going to die anyway." I sighed. "We've gotta get this plane out of the air, and even if it costs us our lives, then thousands more could be saved. It's not that big of a deal. I'm going to die anyway, soI'm not taking another thousand with me."

"But—Tomoyo—"

"I love you. Tell Suppi and Nakuru I'll miss them. Tell everyone else goodbye, too."

__

"Tomoyo!"

"Goodbye, Eriol."

I pressed the off-button and put it back in my purse, then slowly opened the door.

Everyone was in the back of the plane, wide-eyed with terror. Swallowing, I looked around for the hijackers and found none. 

"Listen to me," I whispered urgently. "Listen, everybody. Someone hijacked three other planes, and two flew into the World Trade Center. The last one went into the Pentagon."

A woman covered her mouth in horror, and there were gasps all around, but no one said anything.

"I think they're going to try and crash us somewhere important too. We need to stop them before they get there." Looking around, I saw blank looks. "What are they armed with?"

"Anything sharp," someone said—another woman. "Letter openers, box cutters, and things like that."

"And there's five of them?" Nods confirmed my statement. "We can take over. It's us against five. If we charge them, we'll win."

"But—won't we crash?"

I paused, then admitted, "Yes." Seeing the people draw back in fear, I added hurriedly, _"But we're going to crash anyway._ These people aren't taking the plane for a joy ride! We're headed for something—anything big, and either we die and it's less than a hundred dead, or we die after flying into something like the Empire State Building, which means there'll be a lot _more_ than a hundred dead." Every eye was on me. "Did you call your loved ones?" They nodded, and I stood. "Then who's with me? I'm going out there to take out as many of them as I can, and you can come or stay."

"I'm in." The woman who had answered when I asked what they were armed with stood up beside me and smiled. "We might as well go down our way than theirs."

"I'm in too."

"Count me in."

One by one, everyone in the back stood up. I looked at the people who were now following me as dozens of thoughts shot through my head. They were going to be the last people I ever saw. How odd it was that _I_ was now a leader—Sakura had always been the one who I followed, or someone else. But now—noweverything had changed.

"Come on." I turned and squared my shoulders. "Stop at _nothing_ and don't be afraid. We're saving a lot of lives. Be proud."

Grasping the curtain, I jerked it aside. My eyes swept around the cabin and landed on a man standing warily nearby. I launched myself at him, trying to wrest away the letter-opener, and yells filled the air as my fellows did the same. My opponent's head hit the chair, and he fell limp. I stood, and as I watched, four men threw open the cockpit door. I knew what would happen.

Numbly, I sat in a chair and closed my eyes. Silence fell across the plane as the last of the hijackers were overthrown and the plane started to lose altitude. A thin whine rang in my ears, growing as we fell faster and faster.

Someone grasped my hand tightly. Opening my eyes, I saw it was a little boy, no older than three. His eyes were big and scared.

I picked him up and held him tightly, seated on my lap, as the ground came closer and closer. "It's okay," I said softly. "It's okay."

__

Goodbye, Eriol. Goodbye, Syaoran. Goodbye, Sakura.

"It's going to be okay"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sakura!" I shook the phone, as though it would bring her voice back. _"Sakura!"_

There was nothing. The last noise I'd heard was something heavy falling, like rocks, and then a sharp crack.

Frantic, I pressed the off button and dialed again, but got a busy signal. _She never hung upbut when—_

People rushed around me, some injured from what had fallen, others emergency workers, still more just running to see what was happening for themselves. I stared at them, not sure what to do. I hadn't gotten that far away from the north tower—in fact, I was closer now to the south. Numb, I watched dumbly.

Something launched itself out of a window, then another from a few stories down. I nearly threw up when I realized exactly what they were—people, driven crazy with fear, who had thrown themselves out. A man's tie flew up in his face as the second person—a woman—plummeted down beside him, and he reached an arm out to her. She caught his hand, and they fell together.

I was to horrified to do anything, other than just stand there and watch.

Minutes, hours, seconds; they all were the same to me. I wasn't sure how much time passed.

And then a horrible, roaring, groaning, shrieking noise ripped through the air, and as I watched, the south tower caved in on itself—slowly at first, but then rushing down like an avalanche, faster and faster. 

A cloud of dust, smoke, debris, and things I didn't even want to think about started rolling towards me, like something out of a natural disaster movie. I couldn't move, just watching as it billowed nearer and nearer.

"Sir! Sir, follow me!"

Someone seized my arm and dragged me into a nearby shop. The door slammed shut just as the cloud rolled past. As I watched through the window, the black-gray dust choked the air, turning day into night. Chunks of debris were blown along like leaves in the autumn wind, occasionally surfacing to view. Minutes turned to hours as the dust slowly settled. I was out before five minutes had passed, holding my jacket over my mouth. The particles filled my nose and throat, and through watering eyes I saw a telephone booth, clean on the inside. Pulling out my cell phone, I ducked inside and desperately dialed Sakura's number again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wiped sweat from my brow, and a red smudge was left on my sleeve. A lot of people had gotten out, but they were still coming, and things were heating up.

__

This isn't looking very good

A low, deadly rumble sounded behind me as I wondered what on earth could have happened now. _If only I'd gotten to say goodbye to Syaoran_ The thunderous roar lasted for a least a minute as people paused, listening in terrified silence. When it was over, I croaked, "Keep moving."

The debris I was holding in place was getting heavier by the minute. I wasn't sure how long I was going to last, but it would have to be long enough for everyone to get out.

Ringing filled my ears as I wondered if I was going to pass out. It took me minute to realize it was my cell phone.

Scrambling over to where the sound was coming from, I tried to pull away the plaster. The skin on my hands broke and bled, but soon I held the plastic miracle in red-stained hands. The back of my mind realized that people had stopped coming, but I ignored it and shakily pressed the on button.

"Hello? I'd like to order a large pizza" I said tremulously, trying to laugh.

"Sakura? Oh my godSakura, are you still in there?"

"Yeah. What just happened?"

"The second tower collapsed. _You need to get out now._" 

"I can't, Syaoran, there may be more people coming down—"

"If no one else is coming, then they aren't going to come at all! You can't help the people up there, Sakura! They're trapped!"

"But can't—"

"Sakura, _get out of there!_ _YOU ARE IN A DEATH TRAP!_"

"So are the people up there!"

"You can't help them, Sakura! There is nothing you can do for them!" He paused. "Will you come down?"  
I took a deep breath. "Yes."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Hurry. I don't know how long it's going to last."

"Don't stop talking to me," I begged, dashing down the stairs. An immeasurable fear that I might not make it out started to fill me. _I don't want to dieoh god, I don't want to die_

"I won't," he promised. "Just keep going, Sakura."

My hurried footsteps were the only ones left in the creaking stairway. "Who was it?" I asked. "Who did this?"

"I don't know," he said blankly. "I—I don't know."

__

Tat. Tat. Tat.

"Why—how did you get in New York?"

"What am I doing here?" He laughed shortly. "I came to see you."

"Oh," I said, blushing. 

Something started to echo above me. It started as a quiet buzz, but then thickened into a roar as I ran down the stairs faster. Syaoran swore vividly, and I blinked. "What is it?" I demanded, terrified.

"It's—it's collapsing! Get out of there _now!_"

"I—" I tripped and rolled down the stairs, head-over-heels, with a shriek. Burning pain ran up my leg. Somehow, I managed to hang onto my cell phone, but when I tried to stand, it felt like my leg was being ripped apart. I screamed in pain and collapsed, panting.

"What is it?" Syaoran yelled.

"My—my leg's broken," I gasped. "Syaoran, I don't want to die"

"You aren't going to die—"

"I am," I said tonelessly. "I—I love you, Syaoran—I—I—" 

I could see the walls start to buckle around me. "I think—I think this is it—"

"Sakura—"

"I love you, Syaoran." The noise was ear-splitting around me, and I swallowed. Crushing impact came down.

__

"SAKURA!"

Everything went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I fell to my knees in the street as tears ran down my face. People were running and screaming all around me; sirens were blaring; lights were flashing; yet I didn't register any of it.

It was seventeen hours later when I lifted Sakura's body out of the wreckage.

"Do you know her?" someone asked, seeing my wretched look.

I picked up her cold hand and held it tightly in my own. The wring on her finger flashed in the pre-dawn gloom.

"She was my fiancée," I answered slowly, looking out over the mass of debris. "And a lot more."


End file.
